Refrigerating apparatus



Oct. 26, 1965 J. w. JACOBS REFRIGERATING APPARATUS 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 25, 1963 1 I I lllllLnllll Ill m T m V W James W Jacobs Fig. 2

His Attorney Oct. 26, 1965 J. w. JACOBS 3,213,535

REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 25, 1963 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 54 Fig. 3

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REFRIGERATING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 25, 1965 V 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 36 Fig 6 INVENTOR.

James W. Jacobs United States Patent 3,213,635 REFRIGERATING APPARATUS James W. Jacobs, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Delaware Filed Sept. 25, 1963, Ser. No. 311,584 1 Claim. (Cl. 62-77) This invention pertains to refrigerating apparatus and more particularly to an improved arrangement of a refrigerator cabinet and a refrigerating system and a method of making the same.

In conventionally constructed and insulated refrigerator cabinets, it is possible to use a hermetically sealed refrigerating system by placing the refrigerant evaporator in the compartment to be cooled and extending the connecting refrigerant conduits therefrom through the insulation beneath the removable breaker strips and suitable notches in the walls to the refrigerant condensing unit. Recently foam insulation of superior insulating qualities has been cast in refrigerator cabinets. Such foam insulated cabinets have been constructed in various Way's. Some of the cabinets have the breaker strip bonded in place by the rigid or semi-rigid foam and some form the breaker strips integral with a full plastic liner. Because of such constructions and because of the permanent casting of the foam in the cabinets, it is desirable to avoid the use of the conventional method of extending the refrigerant conduits beneath the breaker strip. It has also been proposed to separately install the condensing unit and the evaporating unit in the cabinet and then silver solder the connections of the refrigerant conduits extending through an aperture in the walls. This requires evacuation and dehydrating, purging and charging, of the system after installation. Such an installation is also inconvenient for the testing of the leaks after the final connection is made, and in case of leaks, it would be necessary to cut the conduits to remove the defective component.

It is the object of this invention to construct a refrigerating system in such a way that it can be readily installed as a unit to a refrigerator cabinet through a simple opening in a wall thereof.

It is another object of this invention to provide a refrigerator with an evaporating system that can be readily passed through a small aperture in the wall of the cabinet and readily formed into a satisfactory evaporator within the cabinet after the insertion thereof.

These and other objects are obtained in the form shown in the drawings in which the evaporator is formed by extending the suction conduit to a length sufiicient to form a refrigerator evaporator and closing the end of the conduit. The capillary restricter tube extends through the suction conduit and the evaporator extension substantially to the closed end where it discharges the liquid refrigerant which returns and evaporates as it returns through the evaporator and suction conduit to the sealed motor compressor unit. The insulated refrigerator cabinet is provided with an aperture in its rear wall which receives the evaporator extension of the suction conduit when the refrigerating system is assembled in place into the cabinet. A tube bending device is connected to this evaporator extension for forming this extension into, as one example, a flat serpentine arrangement extending substantially in a single plane to form a refrigerated shelf. The refrigerated shelf is completed by providing a metal plate on the upper surface of the evaporated portion which is firmly clamped to the evaporator portion by suitable clamps. This plate may serve as an ice tray shelf for freezing water or other materials.

Further objects and advantages of the present inven- 3,213,635 Patented Oct. 26, 1965 tion will be apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings wherein a preferred embodiment of the present invention is clearly shown.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a view illustrating a complete refrigerating system made according to my invention together with a refrigerator cabinet also shown in elevation arranged for receiving the refrigerating system;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary view in elevation of the upper portion of the cabinet and the refrigerating system assembled together showing the evaporator portion extended through an aperture of the rear wall thereof prior to the bending of the tubing;

FIGURE 3 is a top sectional view of the evaporator portion and the tube bending fixture therof for bending the evaporator tubing into a fiat serpentine shape;

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a bottom sectional View taken along the line 55 of FIGURE 6 showing the refrigerant tubing clamped to the horizontal plate provided for supporting ice trays;

FIGURE 6 is a vertical sectional view showing the completed refrigerator; and

FIGURE 7 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional view showing the end of the evaporator tubing.

Referring now to the drawings and more particularly to FIGURE 1, there is shown an insulated refrigerator cabinet 20 of cast foam construction having plastic outer walls 22 and plastic inner walls 24 enclosing a below freezing compartment 26 and an above freezing compartment 28'. A horizontal foam insulated wall 30 separates the below freezing compartment 26 from the above freezing compartment 28. An inner door 32 provides a front closure for the below freezing compartment 26. The horizontal wall 30 is provided with an opening 34 at the rear to provide restricted communication between the below freezing compartment 26 and the above freezing compartment 28 suflicient to keep the above freezing compartment 28 at satisfactory above freezing refrigerating temperatures. A fan (not shown) may be used to provide proper forced air circulation between the compartments if desired. The foam insulation 36 is cast in between the outer and inner walls 22 and 24 to provide an efficient insulated cabinet 20. Below the bottom wall 38 is provided space for a machinery compartment 40 which is located between the extended lower side walls of the cabinet.

The refrigerating system includes a sealed motor compressor unit 42 which withdraws the evaporated refrigerant from the return or suction conduit 44 and compresses the refrigerant and forwards the compressed refrigerant through the supply conduit 46 to the top of condenser 48 where the condenser inlet is located. The outlet of the condenser 48 is located at the bottom and connects with a capillary restricter supply tube 50 which extends through the suction conduit and into the evaporator extension 52 thereof. This evaporator extension 52 is merely an extension of the suction conduit 44 sufiiciently long to form a tubular refrigerant evaporator. Its end 54 is closed as shown in FIGURE 7. The capillary supply tube 50 extends through a major portion of the return conduit 44 beyond the bend 56 and substantially through the entire evaporator extension 52 substantially to but just short of the closed end 54 and terminates with an outlet at the point 58 as shown best in FIGURE 7.

To assemble the refrigerating system to the refrigerator cabinet 20, the system is moved toward the cabinet so that the closed end 54 of the evaporator extension 52 extends through an aperture 60 provided in the rear wall of the cabinet extending into the below freezing compartment 26 as shown in FIGURE 1. This carries the sealed unit 42 into the machinery compartment and positions the condenser 48 adjacent the rear wall of the cabinet 20 as illustrated in FIGURE 2.

To form a refrigerated ice tray shelf, a fixture 62 (see FIGURE 3) is located in the compartment 26 in a substantially horizontal plane at approximately the level of the aperture 60. This fixture 62 adjacent its left rear corner includes a tube clamping device including the fixed and movable element clamping blocks 64 and 66 together with a clamping cam and lever 68 which moves the clamping blocks 64 and 66 together to clamp the evaporator extension 52 just inside the aperture 60. The fixture 62 includes four grooved pulleys 70, 72, 74, and 76 which are rotatably mounted on fixed bearings which are located in alignment from the rear to the front on the right side of the extension 52 and substantially equidistant from each other. These pulleys 70 to 76 are grooved with grooves which will fit the evaporator extension 52.

Between each two of these pulleys there is provided an elongated slot 78, 80, and 82 each of which extends laterally substantially from one side of the cabinet to the other. Each of these slots forms a slideway receiving the bearing of one of the laterally movable pulleys which are equal in size and substantial identical to the grooved pulleys 70 to 76. As shown in FIGURE 4, the movable pulley '84 is rotatably mounted upon a bearing 86 which extends through the slot 82 and is provided with washers 88 and a nut or head beneath the slot 82 forming the sliding mounting for the bearing 86 in the slot 82. The bearing 86 is also extended upwardly to form a handle 90. A similar pulley 92 is provided with a similar handle 94 and a bearing and bearing extension forming a similar sliding arrangement for its extending through and cooperating with the slot 80. In addition a third slidable pulley 96 provided with a similar handle 98 is provided for the slot 78 and has washers cooperating with the slot P oviding a suitable sliding mounting for the bearing of this pulley.

Initially the tubing extension 52 is threaded between the pulleys 70 to 76 on the right side and the pulleys 96, 94 and 90 on the left side with the latter pulleys all being in the left ends of their respective slots as oriented in FIG- URE 3. FIGURE 3 shows the fixture 62 at the termination of the first step. The first step following the clamping of the clamping blocks 64 and 66 by the clamping cam and lever 68 is to move the pulley 96 from the left end of the slot 78 to the opposite end thereof by the use of the handle 98 or the equivalent. This forms the first loop 121 of the evaporator extension 52. In the next step the pulley 92 through the use of its handle 94 is pulled from the left to the right end of the slot thereby forming a second loop 123 illustrated in FIGURE 5. In the third step the pulley 84 is moved by its handle from the left to the right end of the slot 82 forming the third loop 125, in the evaporator extension 52. The pulleys 84, 92 and 96 are then returned to their original positions on the left side of the fixture 62 and the clamping cam and lever 68 is operated to release the clamping blocks 64 and 66 after which the fixture 62 is removed.

Thereafter a metal plate 127 forming an ice tray shelf is placed on top of the evaporator extension 52 having the loops 121 to formed therein. A series of clamps 129 are provided for clamping the plate 127 to the evaporator extension 52 so as to maintain them firmly in contact with each other. This provides good heat condition from the plate 127 to the refrigerant within the evaporator extension 52 so that when ice trays 131 are placed thereon as illustrated in FIGURE 6, the heat will be quickly removed therefrom and water contained therein will be quickly frozen.

The cabinet 20 is completed by applying a door 32 to the front of the below freezing compartment 26 and by applying an insulated door 135 to the front opening of the cabinet which will completely close the front opening of the cabinet so as to prevent access of the outside air to the below freezing compartment 26 and the above freezing compartment 28. As shown in FIGURE 6, the evaporator portion 52 and the plate 127 within the below freezing compartment 26 provides adequate refrigeration to maintain the compartment 26 at considerably below water freezing temperatures. This makes possible the rapid freezing of the water in the ice trays 131 which are supported on the shelf orplate 127. Frozen food may be placed in the compartment 26 beneath the evaporator extension 52. The aperture 34 at the rear of the dividing wall 341 permits adequate circulation between the below freezing compartment 26 and the above freezing compartment 28 to maintain the compartment 28 at adequate refrigeration temperatures such as 35 F. while the compartment 26 is maintained at 20 F.

The refrigerating system as shown in FIGURE 1 can be manufactured, sealed and tested for leaks as a complete unit after all connections are made. This assures a refrigerating unit of high quality which will not be subject to any leaks caused by connections after assembling in the cabinet so that it will have a long useful life. The cabinet 28 need make no provision for refrigerant conduit connections excepting for the single aperture 60 in the rear wall thereof. This aperture 60 may be sealed through the use of a suitable grommet 137 of resilient flexible foamed rubber or plastic. This construction makes it possible for the cabinet to be manufactured with a view to obtaining a foam insulated cabinet of a construction which can be made with the greatest of ease and lowest cost together with high insulating efliciency since no compromises need be made to accommodate the refrigerating system in the cabinet.

While the embodiment of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is:

The method of making a refrigerator which includes forming a refrigerator cabinet with a small aperture in a wall thereof, forming a refrigerating system having a permanently connected liquefying means and evaporating means in the form of a tube having a closed end, passing the tube through said aperture into the cabinet, and after said tube is in the cabinet forming the portion of the tube in the cabinet into a configuration having a portion extending substantially in a single plane, said configuration being larger than said aperture.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,949,663 3/34 Sellman 62-298 X 1,975,046 9/34 Larkin 62-520 2,433,655 12/47 Zoppola 62-449 X 2,464,605 3/49 Phillipp 62-521 X 2,727,363 12/55 Fenner 62-298 X 2,740,188 4/56 Simmons 62-523 2,760,346 8/56 Grenell et al. 62-523 X 2,845,695 8/58 Grenell 62-523 2,959,027 11/60 Ewing 62-511 X 2,979,922 4/61 Witte et a1. 62-523 X 2,990,698 7/ 61 Croster 62-511 X 3,048,021 8/62 Coles et al. 62-511 X FOREIGN PATENTS 171,736 7/ 60 Sweden.

ROBERT A. OLEARY, Primary Examiner. 

